As is known, currently marketed front-loading home laundry washing machines generally comprise: a substantially parallelepiped-shaped outer boxlike casing structured for resting on the floor; a substantially bell-shaped washing tub which is suspended in floating manner inside the casing, directly facing a laundry loading/unloading through opening realized in the front wall of the casing; a substantially cylindrical, elastically-deformable bellows which connects the front opening of the washing tub to the laundry loading/unloading opening formed in the front wall of the casing; a porthole door which is hinged to the front wall of the casing to rotate to and from a closing position in which the door closes the laundry loading/unloading opening in the front wall of the casing for watertight sealing the washing tub; a substantially cylindrical, bell-shaped rotatable drum structured for housing the laundry to be washed, and which is fitted inside the washing tub with its concavity facing the laundry loading/unloading opening and is supported in axially rotating manner so as to be able to freely rotate about its substantially horizontally-oriented longitudinal axis; and an electrically-powered motor assembly which is structured for driving into rotation the rotatable drum about its longitudinal axis inside the washing tub.
Alike any other home laundry washing machine, this type of laundry washing machine furthermore comprises: a detergent dispensing assembly which is located inside the boxlike casing and is structured for selectively feeding into the washing tub, according to the washing cycle manually-selected by the user, a given amount of detergent, softener and/or other washing agent suitably mixed with fresh water arriving from the water mains; a fresh-water supply circuit which is structured for selectively drawing fresh water from the water mains according to the washing cycle manually-selected by the user, and channeling said water to the detergent dispensing assembly or directly to the washing tub; and finally an appliance control panel which is generally located on the front wall of the casing, above the laundry loading/unloading opening, and is structured for allowing the user to manually select the desired washing-cycle.
In most of the home laundry washing machines currently on the market, the detergent dispensing assembly is generally located above the washing tub, and is structured for selectively feeding into the beneath located washing tub a manually measured and pre-loaded amount of detergent, softener and/or other washing agent sufficient for performing a single washing cycle.
More in details, the detergent dispensing assembly generally comprises a detergent drawer which is typically divided into a number of detergent compartments each structured for being manually fillable with an amount of detergent, softener or other washing agent sufficient to perform a single washing cycle, and which is fitted/inserted in manually extractable manner into a completely recessed drawer housing whose entrance is generally located on the upper right or left corner of the front wall of the casing, above the laundry loading/unloading opening and beside the appliance control panel.
In the recent years, however, some high-end home laundry washing machines have been provided with a fully automatic, autodosing detergent dispenser which is structured for automatically batching/dosing, on the basis of the selected washing cycle, the suitable amount/dose of detergent, softener and/or other washing agent to be used during the selected washing cycle and feeding said amount/dose of detergent, softener and/or other washing agent into the washing tub.
More in details, this autodosing detergent dispenser generally comprises two detergent reservoirs which are structured for storing, respectively, a great quantity (for example one liter) of detergent, and a great quantity (for example half a liter) of softener or other washing agent, and which are located on a drawer-like supporting structure which, in turn, is fitted/inserted in manually extractable manner into a completely recessed drawer housing whose entrance is generally located on the front wall of the casing, above the laundry loading/unloading opening and beside the appliance control panel.
The autodosing detergent dispenser furthermore comprises, for each detergent reservoir, a respective electrically-powered detergent feeding pump which is located/incorporated on the drawer-like supporting structure and is able to selectively suck, from the corresponding detergent reservoir, the specific amount of the detergent, softener or other washing agent necessary and sufficient for performing the selected washing cycle, and to pump/channel said specific amount of the detergent, softener or other washing agent into a detergent mixing chamber which is located/incorporated into the drawer-like supporting structure and which is crossed by the fresh water flowing towards the washing tub. This implies that a branch of the fresh-water supply circuit extends up to the drawer-like supporting structure and is structured so as to channel across the detergent collecting chamber part of the fresh water directed towards the washing tub.